Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes (Easy Breakfast Recipe)

These pancakes can make any day feel like a Saturday morning.

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Why am I in my pajamas? We’re making pancakes. The first step is simple. Two eggs into a bowl. And along with those,
I will also add two additional egg yolks. Whisk those up until they’re evenly combined.
But don’t overmix. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of people
make at home when making pancakes is over mixing. And once that’s mixed up just enough, I will add in some baking powder. A lot of baking powder,
but it works. Some sugar and some salt. Then once again, mix that up until it’s well
combined. It’s gonna make a very interesting
consistency here, almost kind of foamy,
and it’s gonna lighten a lot in color. But if you look at this,
this is all happening because of your baking powder. And this is what’s going to give your
pancakes that nice fluffy texture even as you sit there. This will continue to actually
expand a little bit. But this is what we want to happen. This is good. Next,
add in half of your flour. You can eyeball it. You don’t have to measure
and about half of your buttermilk. And then with a wooden spoon not a whisk. We’re basically going to mix and fold all of
this in until we feel like it’s combined enough that we can add the rest of our flour
and buttermilk. This is going to break up some of those air
bubbles and make your batter deflate a little bit. And that’s okay. We want our pancakes to
be fluffy, but we don’t want them that fluffy. Once your batter looks something like
this, go ahead and add in the rest of the buttermilk and the rest of your flour. The reason we do this in batches is to
prevent overmixing, which will result in more tender pancakes. Pancakes should be nice and smooth and gentle
and soft. We don’t want those tough,
chewy, rubbery pancakes that I’m sure we’ve all had at some point. The final ingredient
is a splash of clarified butter, which I will just barely mix into the batter. If you look carefully at this batter,
you’ll see quite a few clumps in there, and these are nothing to be afraid of. This is really just an indicator that we
haven’t over mixed the batter, and you’ll see that when we cook them,
they’ll look totally fine. You’ll never know any clumps existed. With our batter finished,
let’s move over to the stove. When making pancakes,
I like to prepare a sheet tray lined with a wire rack, and then set the oven to 250
Fahrenheit to keep the pancakes warm once they’ve already cooked. To cook,
I like to use a cast iron pan or griddle, and as a first step, we’ll spread some
clarified butter all across that griddle. The reason I use clarified butter is because
you get all that delicious buttery flavor, but without any of those milk solids that
will burn at higher temperatures. Notice I’m putting more butter than you
normally may see, and that’s because I want it to really get up
all in the nooks and crannies at the bottom of the pancake, and you’ll see,
once we flip one, why this works so well as a test. To know if this is ready,
I’ll splash a bit of water down. I’m listening for it to really crackle and
pop. Let’s try our first pancake. So one of the most important parts of cooking
pancakes is temperature control. Always controlling that dial,
controlling the heat. If you smell burning,
if you see burning, turn it down. Also, have a really good understanding of
which parts of your pan or burner are hot and which ones are not. One of the first signs I
look for with my pancakes are those air bubbles that break on the top. Once the pancake firms up around the edges
and those bubbles all start to pop, that’s when I start watching to think about
flipping it soon, I like to think of these pancakes almost like a steak. I’m looking for an even golden brown layer
all across the bottom, and I can check that that’s happening by
looking really carefully under the edges. Notice how I’m not really treating this
pancake like a pancake. I’m treating it like a fancy $3,040 steak. I mean, that’s nice looking. Very important note flip it away from you
when you have this much butter on your pan. Do not flip it towards you. Do not flip it towards your family member.
Flip it away from you. If I start seeing spots on the pan that don’t
have any clarified butter, I’m going to immediately fill those in with
more clarified butter. Like I told you, we need enough clarified
butter because what it does is fills in all those little cracks. And that’s why we have
such a beautiful golden brown pancake. It’s sort of like making a nice crust on a
steak. You have to be patient. You have to be
watchful. You can’t be walking away,
checking your phone, doing whatever you need to be locked in on these pancakes. Once I
feel like my pancakes are good, I can flip them off to my sheet tray,
move all of those little crispy burnt bits out of the way so that they don’t ruin any of
my new pancakes. Then add a little more clarified butter and
we’re good to keep cooking. I like to call these pancakes chefs pancakes
because they require the attention of a true chef, so don’t let the pajamas fool you. You can make these on a weekend. You can make
these on a Saturday morning. But you do need to be awake and focused. You know, you’re making big pancakes when you
need two spatulas. What’s so incredible about these pancakes is
they almost look like an art piece on the bottom of every single one,
like a splatter painting. But really, the best part is all those crispy bits,
because, you know, you’re gonna have so much flavor,
so much texture. I mean, listen, the sound that you can get.
It’s almost like a crispy creme brulee top. To cook these pancakes properly,
you should be going between medium and medium low the whole time, constantly changing your
heat back and forth to make sure that it’s perfect at all times. One thing that’s nice
when you flip them, they splatter a little bit. And what that’ll do,
whether you mean to do it or not, is actually create a bunch of these little crispy edges
that are extra, extra crispy little bites when you go to eat
your pancakes. So don’t be afraid if this happens,
because it’ll actually work out in a really nice way. So after all our fun here,
once you finish making enough pancakes that you fill a whole sheet tray,
go ahead and toss that into the oven to stay warm. And then I’m gonna make my favorite
pancake topping ever. My number one is always this special whipped
cream recipe that I’ve been making ever since I was a kid. It starts off with a bit of
heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. You’ll notice my bowl is nice and chilled,
as is my whisk attachment, which helps a lot to make a nicer whipped
cream. And then I’ll begin to whisk until it starts to come together as a whipped cream. That’s when I sprinkle in just a little bit
of sugar, the tiniest sprinkle of salt,
and some vanilla bean paste to give it that nice vanilla bean flavor and look. Turn it up again and whisk until it gets
those nice soft peaks. But do not over whip. I prefer my whipped
cream slightly under whip, almost so that it’s a little bit droopy when
you go to serve it. The reason this is my special recipe is because I also add a little
bit of orange zest. First of all, look at the color that you get
when you add that to your whipped cream. It’s beautiful, but so much more important than
that color that we’re going to get is the flavor, the flavor of orange coming together
with that cream and that vanilla bean that’ll make you want to take your PJ’s off. I always prefer to fold this into the whipped
cream after, and it’s much easier to control how much is
in there this way. And it also helps to make sure that that
citrus doesn’t mess with the milk, because if you really overmix it,
then technically it could curdle a little bit. And that’s not fun. Normally I would be sharing these with my
family or my friends, but today I can take as many as I want. So I’m going to make a nice tall stack of
five pancakes. Part of me wants to plate these all fancy for
you. The other part of me wants to plate them like I would of when I was a kid. So that’s
what I’m gonna do. First, I would have put a bunch of whipped cream on there and I
wouldn’t have held back. I would have let it droop all over the sides. I would have taken lots of Nutella,
and I would have just drizzled this all over my pancakes. Maybe this is a little bit nicer
than what I would have done, but this was my favorite thing to do because I felt like such
a little chef. When I did this at home, I would go with more orange zest over the
pancakes. It gives a nice pop of color and the flavor. Once I discovered using citrus zest,
I just loved it. Probably would have gone with a nice dusting
of confectioner’s sugar. I think my parents usually didn’t let us have that much
confectioner’s sugar, or we were just ruining the whole house maple
syrup all over everything. Probably I would have gotten some all over
the table like this too. I didn’t really know this when I was a kid,
but these pancakes, they do have everything. And the whipped cream,
you’ve got that fluffiness, that creaminess, and then the complexity of vanilla bean and a
touch of acidity from the orange zest. The actual pancakes themselves are crispy on
the outside and fluffy on the insides. Then you get that extra fun kick of sweetness
from the Nutella and the maple syrup and the confectioner’s sugar. And it all results in
what I really think is the perfect bite. Listen to this crunch as I cut it. That’s what makes these ones so exciting.
Mhm. Mhm. Wow. Better than I thought they would
be.